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Overview

Deepwater Point, New Jersey, is just across the Delaware River from Wilmington. DuPont bought the point of swampy land, formerly known as Skunk's Misery, in 1914 to supplement the explosives production of the adjacent Carney's Point plant. Wartime needs, however, led Deepwater into the production of chemicals such as chlorine. In 1917, DuPont, seeking to end reliance on German dyes, began construction of a dye works and the Jackson dye research laboratory at Deepwater, under chemist Arthur Chambers.

The early years of dye production were difficult, but by 1929 Deepwater finally made a profit. In the meantime, Deepwater had also become the site for production of some of DuPont's most important chemicals, particularly tetraethyl lead (TEL), used as an anti-knock agent in gasoline. Deepwater was the only plant in the Western hemisphere producing TEL up to 1948, when it accounted for the bulk of Deepwater's production.

During the 1950s and 1960s, the site, also known as the Chambers Works, was at the center of DuPont's highly profitable dye operations. With 6,500 employees working in more than 500 buildings, Deepwater was the largest individual chemical plant in the world's largest chemical company.

In the 1970s, however, rising overhead costs and heightened foreign competition cut into Deepwater's business, and the dye works were closed in 1980. Today, Deepwater remains key to DuPont's operations as a production site for chemical intermediates and related products. It is also the site of the DuPont Environmental Treatment (DET) facility, the world's largest commercial and industrial wastewater processing plant, a landmark environmental initiative.

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